Interleaved practice produces higher mathematics test scores than blocked practice in a classroom experiment¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Across both test delays, interleaved practice outperformed blocked practice on an unannounced test, with a statistically significant omnibus effect (η² = .165). → Rohrer 2015

Evidence¶

Rohrer 2015¶

Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., & Stershic, S. (2015). Interleaved practice improves mathematics learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(3), 900-908. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000001

q3 · i? · only an omnibus partial eta squared (.165) is printed for this finding; no standardised mean difference · causal · r2

Classroom experiment with 126 seventh-graders practicing the same graph and slope problems for 3 months, arranged interleaved or blocked (counterbalanced within subject). The two-way ANOVA showed interleaving superior, with printed partial eta squared η² = .165 (large by the .14 threshold).

"A two-way analysis of variance (with practice schedule as a within-subject variable and test delay as a between-subjects variable) showed that interleaved practice was superior to blocked practice, F(1, 124) = 24.43, p < .001, /H9257p2 = .165"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• At a 1-day test delay, interleaved practice yields a moderate benefit over blocked practice (d = 0.42) — related
• The test benefit of interleaved practice does not diminish over time and perhaps grows larger (d = 0.79 at 30 days) — related
• The interleaving benefit appears in three of four problem-type-by-delay comparisons; the slope-problem effect at 1 day was not statistically significant — related
• Interleaved practice provided near immunity against forgetting over a 30-fold increase in test delay — related
• Interleaving Improves Discrimination — related
• Interleaving category examples improves inductive category learning for visual and mathematical materials, but not for expository texts or word categories — a broader claim this one bears on
• Retrieval practice and spaced retrieval improve achievement and retention by medium amounts, while interleaving helps category learning only for some materials and blocking beats it for words — related
• Alternating example-practice pairs produce faster and more accurate near-transfer solutions than blocked presentation of examples followed by practice — related
• The interleaving benefit is not caused by spacing, and the benefit extends to delayed tests — a broader claim this one bears on
• Interleaving is especially useful for inductive, subtle pattern learning without a clear verbal rule, but can equal or exceed blocking in rule-based domains too — related
• Interleaved practice improves delayed posttest performance compared with blocked practice — a broader claim this one bears on
• Interleaving benefits low-skilled students more than high-skilled students when learning math problem categories — related
• Interleaved practice outperformed blocked practice across eight STEM classrooms — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Interleaved practice yields better category learning than blocked practice, and students who choose interleaved practice outperform those who choose blocked practice on novel materials — related
• In Experiment 2, the interleaving benefit on actual test outcomes was not statistically significant, unlike in Experiment 1 — related
• Interleaved practice yields lasting learning effects at delayed posttests in spelling and second-language grammar — related